Impact of caregiving: listening to the voice of informal caregivers.

Long-term care of the elderly and the disabled rests on a vast network of informal caregivers. This qualitative study examined the effects of caregiving on the health and wellbeing of a small, non-representative sample of urban women caregivers. These 11 informants participated in two interviews. Health was conceptualized in a holistic manner, consistent with the view of the World Health Organization and Health Canada. The caregiving experience, as described in this study, was life changing and consuming. Analysis revealed that the domain of caregiving could be captured by three dominant themes: loss and grieving; adapting and coping; and the short- and long-term impact. The consistency in the findings and policy recommendations of studies of informal caregiving begs the question: when will caregivers finally be heard?